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May 28, 2009

G48: Red Sox 3, Twins 1

Jason Varitek hit two solo home runs -- the second on a long bomb deep into the upper deck in right-center -- and Josh Beckett (7-3-1-4-8, 111) turned in another fine performance.

Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch, ending his 22-game hitting streak. Lyndon popped to left in the first, grounded to second in the third, flew out to left in the fifth, and was hit on the wallet in the seventh. He was in the on-deck circle when Julio Lugo made the final out of the top of the ninth.

Beckett struck out the first four batters, then allowed a dong to Joe Crede and walked the next two Twins. A double play got him out of that inning and he allowed only a single and a walk over the next four frames. A one-out double and two-out walk in the seventh were also stranded.

The seventh inning featured the ejections of both managers and both catchers. Ron Gardenhire and Mike Redmond were tossed for arguing a play at the plate in which Jeff Bailey scored Boston's third run on Dustin Pedroia's line drive to right field. The replay seemed to show Redmond tag on Bailey's left arm a split-second before he touched the dish. Bailey may have also missed the plate with his hand; no replay that i saw gave clear evidence either way.

In the bottom of the inning, Beckett and Varitek were steamed at a non-strike call to Brendan Harris. The pitch was nothing special, off the outside corner, but Tek was given the heave-ho pretty quickly and Terry Francona soon followed. I'm not sure how or why things escalated so quickly. Post-game interviews may shed a little light.

The bullpen cleaned up handily. Hideki Okajima allowed a two-out single in the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon gave up a one-out single to Harris before getting Delmon Young to line out to right and striking out pinch-hitter Brian Buscher.

RHP Swarzak, 23, made his major league debut last Saturday against the Brewers. He threw seven shutout innings (7-5-0-2-3, 98). It was the first time in Twins history that a starting pitcher went seven scoreless innings in his debut. (Mike Fornieles pitched a nine-inning shutout on September 2, 1952, when the Twins were known as the Washington Senators.)

BP 2009:

Swarzak has apparently gotten past the drug use that earned him a 50-game suspension in 2007, but his effectiveness didn't come with him. Unlike most Twins pitching prospects, he actually has impressive stuff, but he's also a fly-ball pitcher short of a strikeout pitch. Right now, he has a fastball and curve down pat, but might need a third pitch to make it as a starter in the bigs. His results at Triple-A were obviously greatly improved [1.80 ERA in 7 starts after 5.66 in 20 AA starts], but the low strikeout rate [26 in 45 IP] and still lower BABIP [.266] argue for some sample-size cynicism.

To further the short discussion on Dice from the very end of yesterday's thread:

One thing to consider about his performance in the WBC is the competition he faced. I don't remember exactly who he faced - didn't he face USA? There is something about him pitching to major leaguers that makes him slow things down and mess around the strike zone. Or perhaps he pitches the same way and the MLBers are more patient.

But in comparison the hitters in the WBC, especially from South Korea, were helping him out some by not being as patient.

L, there's a segment on an afternoon radio show at 4:20 called the Golden Bong Award. Also known as the Binger Break. Basically stupid news. Someone does something stupid like leave their ID at a convenience store robbery or something.

But the DJ says "We give this award to person who's been smoking too much of the Wacky Tobaccky."

Well to me, it was just proven that it can be done. So I gotta believe Rice did it. Who knows, maybe when he broke it it swung around and hit his back and that's what Ron meant? I'm just glad he brought up Rice in that situation. Rice is in studio today so hopefully he'll clear it up.

"Roger Clemens used to be among the biggest Red Sox; now he's well down the list. Remember how imposing and intimidating Jim Rice was? Remember the home run he hit when he broke his bat with a check swing? Huh. Rice is a little guy here."

DOn said "out" on a replay where you absoultely couldn't tell if the tag was on him or way in front of the hand, and once it was in his head, he assumed out. Then they show Bailey's hand, and it did touch the plate, I thought.

good throw from RF. ball was therein time. bailey slid away from the field side, replay showed redmond getting his glove on bailey's left arm a split-second before his hand touches the plate, hjis hand was hovering right above it. also, his hand may have been bumped and he may not have touched plate. l thought he missed it, i could not tell.

Coomer keeps saying all Tek was doing was "protecting his pitcher". But we don't know what Tek was doing, because we can't hear him. He may have said a magic word or two. Or arguing balls & strikes, which is automatic tossing.

Just put on the radio real quick, and Castig was confused about Tek, too. Then O'B said it was almost as if Tek was saying "don't talk to my pitcher, talk to me," which explains why he was pointing back behind him.

I think Tek got tossed for touching him - the replay shows that it looks like he touched the ump - not aggressively but to make a point - guess we just gotta hope that Oki can hold it together - I am NEVER pleased to see Oki with anything less than 6 run lead so he can go to bases loaded, clear them and we can bring in Ramon or Manny in time to preserve the lead . . .

I dunno L-girl - the one I'm watching right now? Oki is like Dice-k - makes ot WAAAAAY too interesting . . . Paps is making it way to interesting too lately. He might be getting saves, but imho a closer is not a guy who gives up 2 run jacks throwing fastballs down the middle

We're watching baseball and facts have nothing to do with it - and what fact was wrong? Oki has a history of putting guys on base - or coming into a game with guys on base and clearing them. Paps last outing resulted in a 2 run jack in a 6-5 win. Time before that he lost the save. Facts are irrelevant - past performance is no indicator of present performance. i played his game too many years not to know streaks change on a dime -

I have already expressed my concerns about Pap. I am not going there again. I'd love to see a full comparison of his performance to date this year with his performance to this point in the last two seasons, but I know he has given up more HRs and walks than usual.

L-girl: I just really love haikus, and I know they are more than counting out syllables. So I don't care for the on-the-spot syllable-counting version.Haikus are easybut sometimes they don't make senseRefrigerator

"Facts are irrelevant - past performance is no indicator of present performance."

Past performance, with a large enough sample size, tells you a lot about the probability of future performance over time. Not of individual games, where anything can happen. But over time, large sample sizes.

If you think facts are irrelevant, you will likely not enjoy posting here. And for that matter, I can't imagine you'd enjoy this blog!

Papelbon's last couple performances have actually been quite all right, imo. Omir Santos hits that 97 mph fastball for a HR maybe once every few hundred swings, and the HR pitch to Mauer had some pretty nasty movement and just grabbed maybe an inch too much of the plate (Mauer is a pretty good hitter, after all).

The outings like the 30-pitch "save" he got at LAA in April are much worse.